BWF World Junior Championships 2019: tickets to quarterfinals at stake on Day 4

Day 3 of the individual event wrapped up at BWF World Junior Championships 2019 in Kazan.

The tournament takes place in a playoff format in five categories: men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. In men’s Round 4, tournament’s top-2 Canadian Brian Yang unexpectedly lost to Chinese athlete Cheng Ming Ren, 18:21, 23:25. Other favourites keep winning: the top-ranking junior and current U19 world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Thailand, easily beat Edward Lau, New Zealand (21:12, 21:7), and the third top-seeded competitor Liu Liang, China, quickly won the match with Portuguese Diogo Gloria (21:11, 21:8).

Day 3 in the women’s part of the Championship saw no surprises. Phittayaporn Chaiwan (1) and Benyapa Aimsaard (3) from Thailand, as well as Zhou Meng, China (2), made it through to Round 4. Russian badminton player Maria Golubeva lost the match to Japanese athlete Chihiro Uchiyama (13:21, 13:21). Another Russian competitor, Anastasiia Shapovalova (9), goes to the next round after beating Dounia Pelupessy, Switzerland, after a tense and persistent fight 21:19, 19:21, 21:18. On Thursday, Shapovalova will face off against the top-ranking junior Chaiwan for the ticket to the quarterfinals.

Shapovalova and Anastasiia Kurdyukova could have stayed in the women's doubles but not after losing to the Malaysian duet on Wednesday, 12:21, 19:21. Still, another Russian duet, Anastasiia Boiarun/Alena Iakovleva, after having beaten the girls from Chinese Taipei (21:19, 22:20) will represent the host country in the matches for the quarterfinals. In the next round, the Russian athletes are going to have a hard time facing off against tournament’s top-seeded Nita Violina Marwah/Putri Syaikah, Indonesia.

Men’s doubles saw all the top three duets making it through to the next round: Di Zi Jian / Wang Chang (1), Dai En Yi / Feng Yan Zhe (3) (both duets are from China), as well as Leo Rolly Carnando / Daniel Marthin (2) from Indonesia.

In the mixes, the favourites did not upset the fans and showed an almost impeccable game. Only one of the two Russian mixed duets will compete in the next round: Egor Kholkin/Mariia Sukhova got knocked out in Round 3 by the guests from Hong Kong, while Lev Barinov/ Anastasiia Boiarun prevailed in the match against Korean athletes and in Round 4, will face off against the tournament’s No.3 duet from Thailand.